Reports
Quick Worroora session
Submitted by hlokk on Thu, 2010-05-13 16:21Headed down to Warroora station damo6230 and bluetonic and met up with a few other guys (Stoinka and a few mates).
Headed out Tuesday morning and the fish were working. Got a plastic snipped off by a shark mackie, got my line snipped by a bird and lost my only pencil popper, dammit. Did get to see a school of sharkies swiping at it before pinging off on a cast beforehand though (and all missed). Thats fishing for you sometimes.
Went back in to drop a surfer off from the break to the beach when we saw bait swarming right up against the beach. Then bait started busting up and birds diving everywhere and we got to have a nice little session casting into erupting bait getting a fair few species (spaniards, shark macks, YFT's, stripeys, mack tuna) and some great fun all on light gear or the fly. Good fun.
Not a bad little fish to blood in a new rod. Good fun on the light gear with the reel screaming off.
Good fun on light gear.
Hooked up on fly (cant remember if this was the stripey or the shark mack)
Another species ticked off
First tuna for Garry (not a bad species to start off with, a nice YFT)
- 8 comments
- 2422 reads
Finished fishing by 9am! Costa Rica fishing pictures
Submitted by SailFishQuepos on Tue, 2010-05-11 07:28Here's a quick pick of me, the mate and the 32 foot Ocean Master named 'Stress Reeliever' we fish and love!

Fishing Reports:
May 10, 2010

Wow, the fishing is Super Hot right now. We went out today for 1 hour of fishing and we had a big Sailfish and a monster Dorado. We had 55 minutes of fish fighting and 5 minutes of trolling. Everytime the line touched the water, there were fish behind it. We also found this awesome crate floating around in the water at 20 miles and below it there was a huge school of bait. And like every good fisherman knows, where there is bait, there are gamefish! It's funny, usually the fishing is the hottest in February and March, but it looks like this year, May-August are going to be full of Sails, Yellow Fin, and Dorado. Today is the only day so far this month were we haven't seen the a big YellowFin Tuna School as well. I thnk I could have put some YF Tuna numbers up today if we had been out more than an hour. May has been great so far, we have had only about 2-3 hours of daylight rain all this week. I think we'll keep seeing high numbers and clear days until August. Anyway, here are the pictures, and hopefully I'll post some more soon!

May 6, 2010

Had a half day inshore today, and it was a blast. It's interesting, it has started raining in the mountains and it rains here everynight now, and it has changed the nature of our inshore fishing. We used to go to river mouths and throw up in there looking for some Roosters and if we didn't hook up, we would just move. I just bought a brand new sonar, my dream machine, a Furuno 585 with the biggest transducer they make. I thought today I would try using the sonar to get the Roosterfish instead of just hitting the normal holes and hoping for the best. So today, we went out looking for big fish with the sonar. It took a while to find what we were looking for, but man when we got on the fish, we hooked a monster. I was following a rock ledge trying to find what depth these massive sea creatures were hiding at, and I found a thermocline at around 40 feet that was showing lots of fish. For those of you not familiar with new generation fish finders, they not only tell you where the fish are, but measure the fish and give you the size. So if I am seeing lots of 4-6 inch fish I know they aren't the ones I am after. Also, they are super sensitive to temperature breaks (themoclines), and everytime there is a water temperature change, you get some fuzz at that depth. Well this particular thermocline was showing 20-30 inch fish outside a ball of bait (I think they were bonitas). That's about right for a monster Rooster. So knowing where they are at is half the battle, and we got right after them setting up the downrigger and the biggest lookdown bait I could find. Bam, monster Rooster. I'm talking full hour and change fighting him. After an exhausted but elated customer got the fish up and had the photo sesson, the hunt was back on. I'm still learning how to use the fish finder, but one thing I did figure out was the target lock. You can pick a big concentration of fish and mark them on the sonar. The sonar then sends the point to the GPS and you get a mark on your map. Transfer that to the autopilot and after you release the fish, the boat turns and drives right back over the group. Works great fishing inshore with structure because the fish don't move a whole lot. And swith long fights, it was hard to keep track of where the fish we at before, but now all we had rouble with was getting the rods set up before the boat put us on target again. Well we let the Rooster go, and hit go on the fishfinder and we were hooked up within 2 minutes of fishing. Well anyway, that's the story of how the day went, too bad it wasn't a full day, or we would have caught an insane amount of fish. I expect my inshore trips to be filled more with big fish and maybe not the same number, but more fighting time. We'll see, it was the first day out inshore with the new equipment and I'd consider it a success. I'll keep you guys updated on how this goes down. Offshore the bite has been great and there are lots of Sails, Dorado, and Tunagoing around. Definitely not the normal May in Costa Rica. We have been getting no waves, little rain during the day, sun and lots of fish. I'm looking forward to a great June, July and August. I forgot the camera, but I'll hopefully have some pictures up here in the next day or so. These pictures are from earlier this week offshore, and as always, are of different fish.

April 27, 2010

Great day fishing inshore today! I love when I get to take the younger anglers out! We went out inshore today and got some Roosterfish, a really large Jack and a really nice Spanish Mackeral. We also had about 20 other bites, but didn't get those all the way into the boat. When the tide was low in the afternoon, we were getting a hit every 10 minutes, it was really exciting! The most fun was watching our younger angler rell in the Roosterfish above. He was very wore out, but acomplished something which gives trouble to many more experienced anglers! Offshore has been great as well, with lots of sails and Marlin out. Last trip out, although we didn't get them all to the boat, we hooked 6 sails and a Marlin. Lots of billfish acrobatics. I kinda expected this year to get more sails later in the season, and I am hoping the sails come out all summer. Either way, there will be an awesome Marlin bite, so anybody wanting to hook into the big one, come visit me this June-August!


Sorry this took so long to post, but I have had a big problem trying to get Costa Rican government run internet to mesh with video files and You Tube. But this was an awesome day of fishing. We had heard of Tuna in the area, so we went way out and we found this huge school of Dolphins and Tuna and had it all to ourselves! At first, as you can see in the first video, the school was really moving as the Dolphins were chasing huge schools of small Sardines. It was neat because the Sardines were only 2 inches long at most and it just looked like a dark black cloud moving through the water. at high speeds. Finally the Dolphins got them in a big dark ball and that's when we started pulling out the Tuna. We hooked up with 7 in all and they were all pretty nice sized ones, no footballs! We finally left there in search of a sailfish and ended up hooking one (but it escaped before we got it all the in)and a 300 pound Manta before going towards the house. It was the first Manta I have ever hooked, and the way it hit the bait and fought I was sure it was a Marlin. He pulled out part of his body when he took the bait that looked like a giant Dorsal Fin and then started ripping away at line. I had to turn the boat and chase him just to keep from getting spooled! Well, anyway, I'm sure people will ask why i put videos of Dolphins up on the site. Well guys, here's your chance to sell the Costa Rica trip to your wives! All women love Dolphins! And the whales is just icing on the cake! Below are two of the Tuna, and some sails from this week. Great day fishing, I'll keep those Quepos Fishing Reports coming!




- 1 comment
- 2483 reads
Hill River / Leeman / Port Denison LB Report
Submitted by buschy on Sun, 2010-05-09 18:38Hi all,
Those that saw my earlier post know it was with great excitement that I left for a LB adventure early Friday morning.
Departed at 2am for Hill River and after dodging a couple of roos arrived there soon after 5am for a tailor session. I had big blue macks which I threw out on two 9/0 snelled hooks. I tossed the first bait out and proceeded to rig up the other rod. Thought I felt a bit of weight there so slow retrieved....blue mack was gone. This happened to all four macks in the space of about 20 mins and it was not until the last mack that I felt a solid bite. Struck into it but missed out, the last time retrieving a third of a mack and seeing the nice chomp marks.
Caught a herring on the other rod (5/0 gangs and mulie) and proceeded to put that out. About five mins later pulled in a PB tailor at 47cm. Was quite stoked. All went quiet after that with the sun coming up, but the herring stayed on the bite. My baitcasted mulie was getting follows from half a dozen herring everytime but I knew there would be plenty more chances to catch herring later on.
I packed it up about 8am and decided to head to Cervantes for some ballooning. Unfortunately when I arrived there were a few crayboats on the service jetty, so I headed on to my next destination north of Leeman to see what was around.
With high tide around 1pm the service jetty in Coolimba produced plenty of bites but was a bit slower than previous experiences. Caught a few herring - but these were unusually quiet of not of notable size. Popped a small weight on to see what junk fish were on the bottom and caught a small flounder - a first and very next cast some type of wrasse / cod which was as big as I've ever caught (unfortunately dead weight and very little fight). Some sand whiting around too. Tried the squid jigs but to no avail.
Packed up around 2pm for a break and watching a cray boat unload.
Headed back for the evening sessions about 4pm. A major down turn on the trip when I hit a roo with joey in pouch. It was badly hurt and the joey too young and sadly I had to put an end to things which is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. How some idiots can torture these creatures I will never understand.
Things at the jetty had gone downhill. I was already on a downer after the roo and nothing was biting except for a couple of baby pinks. No amount of burley seemed to get even the herring on the bite. The sundown session produced nothing and it was down on confidence I put out a lump of occy on the balloon. It was cold, and the insects were biting (I left my repellant in Perth!).
This is where some people are going to think I'm crazy. I noticed an orange/reddish light - looked a lot like a star - perhaps 10k or so distant. I thought it was maybe a satellite or star at first but then noticed it was making some really unusual movements. Up, down, left, right, speeding up, slowing down, speeding up. This thing started in the middle of view then made it's way toward the left hand side heading south. I thought, maybe an insect so killed all my lights but it was still there. I rubbed my eyes, thinking perhaps I was seeing things....nope, still there.
So this 'light' then proceeded north again tracking erratically back towards where it started. At this point I was a bit scared, on my own in the middle of nowhere. I kept asking myself "what the f*ck?" - but watched on in amazement. Next the light started to drop towards the horizon, as if it was now moving away at high speed. It gradually faded from sight.
I started sending a text to a mate who was on his way to meet me. Halfway through the text the drag started going on my reel.
Battled something that felt good for a couple of minutes...then started to really give it some and whatever it was let go - I didn't have the hookup. The balloon was right in front of the jetty now and there was no wind to get it back out. Waited a few minutes....and sure enough the fish came back. A few big tugs and the balloon popped. I let it run with the bait knowing that it was a big lump of occy with only the one hook so I needed to give it time to have a chew. Waited a minute or so and struck in - it felt like a hookup.
Whatever it was felt really heavy but did not have that much fight. After a bit of work I managed to get a small shark to the surface with one hell of a lot of weed attached to the bait (the extra weight). Unfortunately the shark was still not hooked and as soon as it surfaced it let go of the bait.
Cut the bait back to improve the chances of a hookup and put it back in the water, now on the bottom.
15 mins later, the light comes back. I watched it with interest for a few minutes before the drag starts creeping again. Another little battle...and whatever it was lets go.
Try again. 10 minutes pass and an aircraft is en route to the spot where I saw the light. The aircraft circles once then heads west. Clearly someone else saw it too.
The drag creeps again....a let it run for a minute or so then set the hook - this time I feel confident I'm hooked up. Within 30 seconds or so I called it for a ray, and it's about now that my mate arrives from Perth. Tell him about the 'UFO' and get laughed at, while patiently working the ray. I've still got the 120lb braid on the reel and even that was straining. The rod was at full flex trying to budge this thing and everytime I took 6 inches it took 6 feet.
Took me about 30 minutes or so to get this thing in and I was surprised to see it surface. It was one of the really big stingrays you see around the jettys up that way - a bonnet size jobby. Cut the line and let it swim. At least I got to fight something and truly test out the tackle.
We fished on for a couple of hours but nothing happening. I caught two herring on the little rod - both were really damaged fish with dodgy tails. Again, half the size of the herring I have come to associate with that area.
We decide to call it a night.
Next morning we head out early to 'Taylor Bay' just north of Leeman. Fished it for about an hour and absolutely nothing happened.
Made a call to drive to 'S Bend' for the day as we have both wanted to check it out for a long time. We stopped at Port Denison bakery for a feed - best sausage rolls in the world. Went for a look on the marina and the outside wall appeared to be teeming with fish of all sizes.
"Stuff S Bend" we proclaim. "Lets have a bash here". Long story short, we spent 10 hours on the marina south wall for a silver bream, a small trumpeter and a few juvenile pink snapper. About halfway through the day someone kindly told us that nobody ever catches anything on the 'reef' side of the marine so we switched to the inside. Went down to the point for sundown and it was interesting to note that the locals who had been down for the afternoon session were all taking off. Apparantly they knew something we didn't because nothing was on the bite all night.
Back to the house at 9pm with nothing to show for our efforts.
I'm a big believer in the lunar cycles and on the Friday the tailor and herring were mostly full of roe. Coupled with the 'dodgy' herring I caught I reckon the tailor and herring are in the middle of spawning which would explain why we caught bugger all. I will be interested to see if LB reports from other people are similar for this weekend.
The fishing was average, but the weekend was extremely eventful so I can't complain. Plus I caught my biggest fish yet...albeit a giant stingray.
- 9 comments
- 2892 reads
two rocks marina
Submitted by rebelman on Sun, 2010-05-09 15:54hey guys,
thinking of going up to two rocks tues afternoon for a fish.or even yancep lagoon if the weather is okay...has anyone been up to two rocks lately?..whats the best spots up there?.also had a look at the weather for tues..its ene winds 5km all afternoon with wave 2.1m waves with a low tide of .75m i think...so what do you experts think of them conditions for fishing?any good
thanks guys
- 4 comments
- 3976 reads
Abrolhos report
Submitted by hlokk on Fri, 2010-05-07 22:01Well, got back from the Abrolhos on Saltwater Charters early on this week and had a great trip.
Ah, the Abrolhos, where practically every sunrise and sunset is a work of art
On the first day we started a bit of trolling and soon picked up a triple hookup of mackies. A few more passes around similar areas and we got a few more. Good to tick off (and got one on my lighter trolling gear which was fun).
and my biggest, on a chrome head richter waaaay out the back. Took heaps of line and burnt my thumb. Excellent!
We were getting too many mackies, so decided to head off bottom bouncing. Basically we spend the trip moving between bottom fish lumps, chucking poppers and stickbaits at busting up birds or trolling lures around.
Heaps of great trout were caught, with pretty much everyone getting at least one over 3kg. Damn they pull hard. A coronation and a few tomato cods too.
A fair few pinkies were pulled up and some reasonable sized ones (but no pics on my camera). Last drift of the last night we managed to pull several pinkies off from a spot barely 100m away from the mooring.
Managed to get into quite a few spanglies with them popping up over the place like this one that smashed my plastic
and another patch on the third day where we just got spanglie after spanglie after spanglie.
Got lots of opportunities to cast at the bait being herded up against the shoals, or just birds diving at bait. We'd all have stickbaits ready and as soon as we saw bait schools, four of us were up the front chucking away. Several sharkies pulled out of them, as well as mackies and tuna, including a few YFT pushing about 6-7kg
Fish of the trip was this biiiiig kingfish out of one of the bustups. Must have been pushing almost 20kg and on 30lb line too.
Lots more fish out of bustups but didnt get pics of everything. Had one bustup with bronzies and birds smashing it. We cast a few lures but nothing hit until the bronzies swam off. After that there was a tightly bailed ball of whitebait clinging to the boat and hundreds of tuna smashing it. Lots of little mack tuna, and a few bigger stripeys to about 6kg (damn they go hard on light gear). Everyone had fun catching tuna for over half an hour as the bait school balled up against the boat. Some catching over 20 mack tuna, while others hooking into the bigger stripeys. I have some awesome footage of the baitball getting smashed but for some reason my camera sped it up parts of it when i went to view it on my computer. Weird (and annoying).
I didnt end up doing much jigging myself as for most of the days the drift speed was up a bit due to the wind (but still quite fishable) and I mostly had 80-150g jigs (really needed 200g+). Did manage to get a coral trout, a good tuna hookup that dropped me, a few mackie snips and a this dhuie though.
Oliver however, decided to try jigging for the first time and didnt take long to be rewarded with a great sized dhuie.
His jig was on fire, landing a total of 9 dhuies over the trip (and a small coral trout and pinkie). Biggest was this niced sized one of 12kg (biggest of the trip).
Oh, and i also managed to finally pick up a dollie for this season from a pack that came a marauding while we were bottom bouncing. I know its a small fish, but I love dollies so was very happy to catch one.
Oh, and the Russel Coight moment for me. Was walking up to the front of the boat to do a bit of jigging on the last day. Not the best conditions with a few whitecaps around (but still fishable at least). Stepped up on the gunnel and grabbed the rail at the front, rod and rail in one hand when a perfectly timed wave hit the boat just as i was shifting my feet, slipping over. I managed to grab onto the rail with both hands though, toes dangling in the water, rod fallen but resting safe on the walkway. Pulled myself up no problems and got on with jigging, haha. Wave coulda been a fraction later or a fraction earlier and wouldnt have been a problem, just unusual timing. Yay for reflexes though, hehe.
Not a huge number of really big fish caught, but heaps of great sized mackies, spanglies, coral trout, pinkies, dhuies, etc with pretty much everyone getting multiples of each. Geeez its tough when they're the most common species 
Quite a few tuna, sharkies and good sized skippy caught too. As for crap fish, I think we got a single sargeant baker, a single scorpion fish and a few charlie courts and redthroats (which arent bad fish but went back as they werent big) and a few sambos here and there, so quality fish outweighed the others by a nice big margin.
Overall, although I didnt get many fish on jigs, I still got a heap of fish, including a fair few on plastics, and spinning surface lures. Went pretty well with the pelagics though getting a fair few species (mackie, shark mack, stripeys, YFT, sambos, dollie, skippy).
Everyone got into some decent fish (and a fair few fillets brought back) and everyone had a great time when fishing and when not. Awesome trip!
Cant wait for July!
(one spot still left
)
- 16 comments
- 3320 reads
Quick arvo session
Submitted by Adam Gallash on Fri, 2010-05-07 21:11Well, its been a pretty full on week. Ended up going out three times for work and ended up with 1 x whale shark, 2 x sails, 2 x dollies, 30 x striped tuna in not bad conditions and also dropped one black on thursday. Jeffo hadn't been for a fish in a while and wanted to get out there and with an arvo glass off forecast, that is what we did. Got out there about 1.30 and trolled around for 3 hours with no joy and things were starting to get a little disheartening. All of a sudden we found a baitball that was getting worked, upon closer inspection it had a massive shark on it (we think it may have been a white) but didn't get close enough to examine before it went down. Seeing as it was on a current line we decided to troll along it and see what was there. Within 10 minutes we had what we think was a billie come up and give the shotgun a smack, less than 2 minutes later we both watched an eruption on the purple shotty and bang, we watch a solid black erupt in the distance and peel off some serious line. Waiting to get a few shots the billie decided to sit below the surface, after about 20 minutes we got a couple of small jumps, but just enough to get some evidence before it spat the hooks. We estimate it at about 110kg, but it could have been easily more than that.
Continuing on trolling we had a couple more hits, a nice hookup on a dolly and had his mate sit under the boat for 10 minutes watching the commotion (released) and then hooked up a couple of 3kg stripeys. We had planned to do some bottom bouncing but seeing as the surface had some action we gave it a miss and focused on trying for another bill. Unfortunately we couldn't find one, but headed in just on dark to a beautiful sunset with a school of spaniards chasing flying fish in an airborne frenzy, was a top way to finish the arvo session! Hopefully this sort of billie action will keep up for the FW comp next weekend.
Cheers,
Adam
- 7 comments
- 2075 reads
Will take a bit of getting used to these HUGE bag limits at Groote!
Submitted by wadetolley on Mon, 2010-05-03 09:01Well we have arrived at groote safe and sound. 4wd has arrived, and boat should be here thursday on the barge. Last 3 days have been calm, and the rain has stopped..im itching to get out for a fish. Been and checked out the boat ramp, and come across this bag limit sign. I must say they are generous up here..no more 3 month bans, yipeee!
- 8 comments
- 2434 reads
herring
Submitted by DK on Sun, 2010-05-02 21:23Gday fishos! it might be a stupid question but anybody know the best place to get herrings? and what bait is the best to get one?
Cheers!
- 12 comments
- 2953 reads
Wed Fishing
Submitted by SamC on Fri, 2010-04-30 22:10Coupla pics from wednesdays outing. Good sized sharkies on sub-surface, goldens on plastics, and a fiesty lil black to start the morning off!
- 10 comments
- 2155 reads
Fishing the lower reaches of the Swan
Submitted by Bob da Fisherman on Fri, 2010-04-30 16:44Hi folks
Thinking of launching the dinghy from East Fremantle tomorrow morning
Appreciate any info on what's on offer in the lower part of the Swan River as I've never fished there
- 3 comments
- 2338 reads
If its Red its Dead - Part 2 Exmouth
Submitted by Simo_ on Fri, 2010-04-30 10:11we hit the back of the islands yesterday and came up with the goods. first drift Amanda got a 45cm Red and a big Rankin double, I got a Crimson. Second drop I pulled up a 63cm Red. After that I decided to throw a jig down and scored a Coronation Trout, A first for me on jig.
It was a lucky catch as something big grabbed the trout a few metres off the bottom, after a few mins it let it go and I pulled it up just in time to get it away from a shark that was chasing it
- 9 comments
- 2059 reads
No billfish on a full moon?
Submitted by Adam Gallash on Thu, 2010-04-29 21:13We headed out for work today looking for dollies but all we could find were these pesky buggers. We ended up hooking 6, landing 3 and seeing 2 freejumping sails and had one free swimming marlin cruise under the boat. I handed over my first billy to Richo to try and get a few photos and then the lucky pink took care of the rest. The water was cobalt blue and near glass for most of the day, awesome viewing conditions. As I was the deckie for the day I sat and watched every billfish come in and attack the lures, was awesome to watch with the last billy absolutely smashing the lure. We also landed 3 striped tuna and dropped a yellowfin tuna. We were only out for 4.5 hours, it was unfortunate not to get our target, but theres always next time. :)
I managed to get a few good shots before my camera battery died. Hope you enjoy.
- 23 comments
- 2531 reads
They were pretty close in today.
Submitted by alfred on Wed, 2010-04-28 22:35They were pretty close in today.
- 5 comments
- 2220 reads
salmon west end rotto
Submitted by spoon on Wed, 2010-04-28 21:41was over rotto over the long weekend and decided to leave the boat at home as a mate was coming over for a few days anyway.
fished westend on the sunday and landed 21 salmon up to about 7 kilos and 2 ytk about 6 kilos. wearnt really schooling up just random small schools, had to troll real slow about 4 knots and were using river2sea trhio's and bombers, then casting lasers back when we hook up. We wernt really prepared as it was a kind of a spur of the moment thing but was a bit of fun for the boys that havent really fished before.
doubt they will be hangin arround for much longer as they have broken out of there schools
cheers
- 1 comment
- 1905 reads
Annual Wild Wagoe Weekend 2010
Submitted by scere_182 on Tue, 2010-04-27 15:14Gday
Just got back from a 4 day annual trip to Wagoe. Thought it'd be a good chance to post up my first comprehensive report on the site. :)
A decent weekend weather wise was forecast, as many of you know this place can be unfishable if the weather and swell are intolerable. So we were happy to have timed it right this year.
Arrived 10:00am on the friday, settled in at the chalet had a big barbeque for lunch then headed down the track to the beach to find the wind blowing its box off with a South Easterly and a large swell. Decided it would be safer fishing from one of the sandy openings in the reef south of the reef at wagoe. Not much happened all afternoon with only a few dart finding their way to the sand.
My brother Dave (fellow fishwrecked member) decided to drop down to a smaller outfit... threw out a mulie on his 9' starlo shore spin and 20lb seido combo in order to have a bit more feel in the wash and immediately come up trumps with a 58cm 2.5kg personal best tailor. Happened to be the only one landed that evening.
![]()
![]()
Dave with a 58cm 2.5kg Tailor.
Me and my 60cm 1.75kg Swallowtail Dart.
Got to an early start 4:30am Saturday morning thought we'd fish a structured spot for a few hours off the reef at the entry to the beach. Seemed to be going slow with not alot happening off the reefs. Mulie were coming back untouched, the squid baits we casted out were only accounting for a few to many different species of cod and a small spangled emporer. Feeling hungry the guys made the choice to go back for a feed of our own.
With a large bacon, sausage and egg breakie in the stomach a few of the older blokes decided to head into Kalbarri. The younger guys took up an oppurtunity to head back down to the beach and wait for the wind to swing from a south easterly to a more capable ballooning breeze. Come 10:30am the breeze had finally changed to an eastern direction and out and about like fleeing ants we get our setups ready for the unknown. Both myself and my brother being complete novices at ballooning for macks we didnt know quite what to expect.
With immense anticipation i start to let out my helium balloon from my shimano tyrnos 30 / tiralejo combo and finds its way out about 400m offshore. Having not ballooned for mackies before on prevoius trips to wagoe we were there to primarily learn just how to go about it. Dave started letting out his skipping gardie from his daiwa sealine/ live fibre lbg combo no further than 100m-150m. A half our in his balloon hits the water and his line goes limp. Not knowing whats going on he begins reeling in profusely. Immediately after he starts retrieving some limp line we see the balloon snap and sail off into the distance and thus realises he has missed a chance to strike as the fish has already taken the rigged gardie and the hooks from his trace. A steep learning curve, undiscouraged we now have some vital knowledge for the next day.
My gardie remains untouched for 2 hours so we decide to pack up and head out to see if any one else had any luck with the easterly. A few blokes camping the north side of the reef faired well with 2 spanish mackerel landed that morning half an hour apart.
Sunday morning we are greeted with a lightning show as we hit up another spot on the reef. Flood lights glaring out onto the reef and what felt like a terential downpour we realised the flat yet stormy conditions allowed us and many other weekenders to produce fish from the reef this early morning. With a soft easterly all morning conditions looked favourable for a great days fishing. Immediately from the get go our squid baits were getting hit after hit every cast. A few small tailor were landed, huge skipjack trevally put on a great fight on the rocks as did the painted sweetlip, large spangled emporer, and another thumper dart of 61cm.
Bruno with a 61cm Swallowtail Dart
With all this unexpected great fishing commotion going on i forget to keep an eye on the water. As a large swell comes over the ledge and sends me floating a 1m or so back over the oysters on the reef i suddenly realize i have simultaneously hooked onto something worth my attention as the 50lb braid starts screaming from the spool of my spheros. This unexpected suprise was putting my 12' tiralejo under some major stress. Everytime it would stop running and i thought i had the upperhand in the battle it would see the reef and decide to run further. After a good 5 minute tug'o'war and a 100m dash along the side of the reef on rockhoppers in the limited morning light, i catch a glimpse of a tail slapping the surface of the water. A quick dash over and a hand around the fork of the tail and i had captured my first ever amberjack. What a thrill.
Captured 86cm 5kg Amberjack
A mate of mine finally hooked another species we had been unsuccesfully targeting all weekend. With big bust off after bust off during the weekend he finally turned his luck and persisted with his light 10' spin setup. Managing to outsmart an over aggresive head shaking fish of considerable weight, he dangled at the risk of his own life in the whitewash of a dangerous rock dropoff. Out goes a large shout "PINKY" he finally landed that pink snapper everyone was after.
Daniel with his 46cm 2kg Pink Snapper
Come 8:00am my old man sends out the 1st of 3 balloons we have in the tackle box. Before the gardie has a chance to venture out no more than 100m the balloon takes to the water. This time he gets a head start and started retrieving line fast as he makes sure we wont be made a fool of twice. The rod loads up, with a bit of weight he sets the reel to strike and off flys the balloon with the drag screaming for the deep blue. After a short 10 minute tussle of drag screaming and short bursts he finally gets the fish to the reef only to discover the fish has one last dash left in him and makes for covered ground amongst the reef. Another failed attempt at gaffing and landing our first land based mack. While this had been happening i had setup my outfit ready for another assault only to find my earlier fortune elude me as my baloon some how gets dragged into the edge of the reef and bursts leaving the group with the one and only last balloon.
My old man once again decides to take control of the situation and sets up the rod and balloon. We all watch as the gardie starts to skip out further and further from the shore line. Once again no more than 100m the balloon takes to the water. STRIKE!! We're on.... Having never experienced anything of this sort before he decides that we all take turns to fight the mackie and gain knowledge for next year as the fight lasts an exciting 15 minutes. Before the mack gets to the ledge of the reef, i decide to hand the rod back to my father as any responsibility for losing this fish would then be placed on him. With a laugh he takes the rod... 5 or so minutes go by as he attempts to wear it out. Around the reefs ledge taking extra precaution not to miss out on this our last attempt, my brother manages to gaff it first shot.
My old man with our 8kg Spanish Mackeral
Success! Our first capture of a Spanish Mackeral from the land. What an eventful weekend. Surely an unforgettable expierience and another fishing story to be shared between a few coldies in the future. Excuse me if i have ranted on a bit, but as you can probably tell experiences like this fills the average fisho full of exstatic emotion. These experiences are no doubt what keeps myself and you so involved in the recreation of fishing.
Thanks for reading.
Rob
- 14 comments
- 4536 reads
Exxy Experience
Submitted by deepwater on Tue, 2010-04-27 11:29Hi all i have lived here for a few years and the family has come up for 2 weeks.
they got here saturday arvo and out we went. in 3 hours we managed to raise 4 billies, lost 1 marlin and landed 1 sail.
day 2 we got a few goldies out in 150m and raised 1 billy and in all got 10 stripe tuna all reliest.
day 3 up to the islands we got 4 snapper and a 7m whale shark that swam around the boat for about 40mins.
so far they are loving exxy and booking for next year already. today is a lay day out in the gulf squidding.
sorry no pics just yet, getting them soon.
jeff
- 8 comments
- 2358 reads
Salmon - Yallingup
Submitted by Gatiep on Tue, 2010-04-27 10:04We fished Yallingup Beach for Salmon this weekend. There were a number of nice salmon caught in the 5 to 7 Kg range, with the vast majority of captures around sunrise and sunset. A few schools came in close, and twice we saw dolphins herding the schools.
On sunday evening the beach was packed with fisho's, and a few nice fish were caught. We managed to land two nice salmon after dark. Photo's attached.
We also fished from the boat out of Canal Rocks in around 10m of water and the variety of fish caught was impressive.
Flathead, Herring, Jewfish (juvenile), Scaly Mackerel, Samson Fish, Skippy, Pink Snapper (juvenile), Ray, Whiting, Wrasse.
The highlight was a 7Kg Sambo on light tackle (7' Daiwa rod, Shimano FX2000 reel and 12lb PreTest mono (no leader)) landed by a first timer !
- 1 comment
- 4053 reads
yesterdays fishing
Submitted by lurcha on Mon, 2010-04-26 16:50went out wide yesterday to try our luck in 300-350mtrs but didnt have much with only a few unwanted species being boated and one horse of a fish being dropped half way up! went in to fish the derwent and boated a few pinkies and a leather jacket then moved on to jig some ambers. Unfortunately we werent the only ones interested in the ambers with several being lost to the men in grey!! after several attempts to skull drag a fish up we gave in and headed home. was a slow day on the water and being hung over with an hours sleep didnt help.
- 5 comments
- 2245 reads
Swan River Dive
Submitted by Matt T on Sat, 2010-04-24 22:06Went out on Friday night for a river dive with my mate, Matto. After a false start on thursday night, when we got down to the spot, right on time to realise that he'd forgotten his weight belt! Guess it wasn't to be that night and we decided on a dive for Friday after work.
We packed up the car and got down to the spot about 6:45pm, the traffic was pretty shocking on the freeway. Anyway after a quick scope of the area we suited up and waded into the water about 7:15, just after dark. In true form Matto had forgotten his big UK torch this time - lucky he's so quick on the prawn net and at grabbing those crabs - so I lent him my spare UK MiniQ. Surprisingly those little torches put out quite a bit of light. Once in chest deep we put our masks on and decided on a path to follow, that would hopefully have us surface close to the exit point. It's a lot harder to navigate in the dark at the bottom of the swan than you would think...
Anyway, we hit the bottom after a short swim in about 7 metres and the visability was remarkably good. I guess this would be due to the break in dredging out of Freo, cause that seemed to really make it murky. We worked off Matto's compass for directions and started to scout the river bed for dinner.
There were heaps of star fish on the bottom and a fair few nice sized whiting. Within 5 mins I spotted a nice sized blue manna, already waving his claws at me asking for a fight. That's all the invite I need and snatched at him, bracing for those claws. The little ones can barely nip you, but the big blues, well they are a different story. Even through my kevlar diving glove he gave me one hell of a nip on the wrist but he was too good a size to drop. Man was I relieved once that catch bag closed with him in it.
I had stirred up the silt on the bottom a bit and could just make out Matto's tank about 5 metres to my right. I swan over to find that he had been busy picking up some prawns, all great size too! He's definately still refining the technique, but hell he was doing well for a first try. He tapped me on the arm and pointed into the distance where I could see the raised claws of another big blue. They are funny and ballsy creatures these crabs, a giant bloody human can swim right up to them and they just hold their ground and raise their fists. Or claws as it may be. Unfortunately he didn't stand a chance - I swam around behind him and before he could turn I had picked him up and shut him in the bag. I almost felt guilty. lol.
Matto came over and started indicating that we were off course and to follow him. We went off on a bit of a prawn reccy and picked up a few scallops along the way. Such beautiful shells the swan river scallops have I thought, my eldest daughter is going to love these. After grabbing another couple of crabs we decided that we had pleanty for tea, especially considering the size of the crabs, and we headed for the exit point. We checked the depth it - was about 12 metres so we slowley made our way to shallower water to surface. We got to about 9 meters and Matto signalled to surface. I thought that we were way off course, but he was pretty certain. We surfaced nice and slowly and to my surprise and delight, we were right on target.
A short walk out of the water and time to pack up the gear and dry off. Once we got home the seafood platter was placed out on the back patio for a couple of quick pics and then the crabs hit the boiling water straight away. The prawns fried up nicley with the scallops in some garlic and olive oil and some ice cold beers were opened. With that there was a breif cheers and we dived into the fresh local WA seafood platter before us. I don't care what people say about the dredging ect - I rekon that seafood out of the swan is still bloody lovley. I might even grow an extra finger or two....but that would probably come in handy cause I rekon one day the bluey will have to win...
The ingredients for Friday night dinner

The size of the prawns was great as you can see

- 8 comments
- 3646 reads
Palm beach salmon trout
Submitted by beau on Fri, 2010-04-23 23:35Decided to go out for a quick flick down at palm jetty on Friday night. Ended up staying for 4 hours haha. I caught about 25-30 salmon trout and around 10 herring and a couple of choppers flicking some shallow diving minnows around. Bloody good fun on light gear. All fish were realeased
- 1 comment
- 1814 reads
Coral Bay - If its Red its Dead
Submitted by Simo_ on Thu, 2010-04-22 18:23Popped out this morning and got a few Reds before the wind picked up. Amanda won the day with a 7kg & 6kg Red 
- 12 comments
- 2389 reads
Salmon - Dunsborough?
Submitted by JoRn on Tue, 2010-04-20 23:19hey guys,
been keeping an eye out on salmon reports, but all the reports seem to be coming from West End.
I'll be heading down to dunsborough this weekend with my boat in tow, what are the salmon reports like at the moment?
how hard is to find the schools.
quick question for all the boaties out there, will be launching at quindalup and heading towards bunker bay in search for these salmon.
are there any obstructions of reef that i should be careful of, reefs etc? i have a gps but my map only extends to busselton...so i just want to be sure
im sorry if this sounds like just another salmon question
- 6 comments
- 2531 reads
Coral Bay - I see Red
Submitted by Simo_ on Tue, 2010-04-20 18:02
Went out this morning and got into the Reds
Was done by 11am. Amanda only
put the line down 4 times for 3 Reds and an undersize spanglie, 1 of the
Reds was dropped 1m from the boat
.
I got a 7kg and a 5.5kg Red and a nice Rankin. Amandas bigger red was 5kg.
Not bad for a windy choppy day.
- 24 comments
- 2842 reads
South Beach Groyne
Submitted by DonovanMD on Mon, 2010-04-19 11:16Fished South Beach this morning for the second time. I'm new to this board and new to fishing in Perth having immigrated from Canada and ocean fishing is basically all new to me for this formerly land locked boy. Had some success at local groynes for bread and butter fish and swung by SB around 430am. Twenty minutes in I pulled in a 31 cm King George, wasn't even sure it was KG to be honest until I looked it up and read about the distinct spotting. Extremely tasty for brekky this morning.
Also pulled in a half dozen herring, all of nice size and kept a couple. Pulled in a small Port Jackson, a small skippy and a single Garfish, my first of this species. The old fella next to me pulled in a dozen or so garfish in a couple hours, and his grand daughters pulled in a half dozen or so fish each.
Overall fun morning for a newbie like me and a mixed bag of catches.
- 13 comments
- 4080 reads
Quick Exxy Report
Submitted by Adam Gallash on Sun, 2010-04-18 12:29Went for a mission out to Tantas yesterday and was greated by some average conditions, luckily it started to calm down as the day went on. I couldn't find a deckie for the day so did the solo mission, luckily the dslr got some ok shots. Within 10 minutes I had a double of hookup of dollies, thankfully one got off and I managed to land the other one (released). After 20 minutes I had another hookup, not the billfish I was hoping for, but still some fun as this dolly was a lot more acrobatic (released).
I then did a bit of bottom bouncing and got 1 small goldband before the sharks moved in, which was quite unfortunate as there were some solid fish down there. As my next spot was quite some way away and the conditions still werent good, I trolled down to the next spot and picked up a small striped tuna. The next spot was in 168m, after landing 2 pinkies I was then sharked again right on the bottom, after fighting him 166m to the top the hook busted off (got my braid back atleast, but the back didn't enjoy it).
After that I trolled around aimlessly for a while with no luck and tried drift bait a few spots but everything had shut down with the tide change. I called it quits and was back home by 3, not a bad day, but if I'd managed to get a few of the goldies up to the top without the sharks it would have been great. Ahhh well, still good to get out there and wet a line as it had been about 3 weeks.
- 11 comments
- 2557 reads
salmon
Submitted by TheBradyBunch on Sun, 2010-04-18 08:28hey there pp i went down to eagle bay yesterday to do some salmon fishing with my partner an boy she was rapped when we got there an two cast in 10 mins resulted in her catching the first salmon of the trip then half an hour later after feeding bubs we got double hook up an resulted both of us gettin them both in. Thanks to the lady that kept our son happy while we faught the fish. We ended up with three salmon for the trip an one herring.
The action down that way is still good but it has slowed down since the easter break but it was still nice to see ppl catching fish. I have never seen so many salmon lost though due to ppl not know how to up keep there gear an paniking when they have a fish on an try to skull-drag the brutes in something has to give an the fish will usually win but all in all it was still fun to see
- 4 comments
- 2005 reads
hillaries saturday evening
Submitted by wopjrb on Sat, 2010-04-17 23:47took the tinnie out to cow rocks off hillaries on sat night got around 30 herring - had a bit of a fish under the lights in the marina and got busted off by a big tailor on a mulie tail - peterb also managed to land one at 32cm and another at 30cm - the one that busted me on 4kg mono would have been 40cm easy - alsogota nice squid and stocked up on yellowtail for bait
- 1 comment
- 1859 reads
North Mole info pls
Submitted by Bob da Fisherman on Sat, 2010-04-17 10:43Want to try fishing from the North Mole this weekend but not sure of the dredging that's going on down that way
Any info appreciated
- 6 comments
- 2352 reads
Todays Dinghy Report
Submitted by milsey on Fri, 2010-04-16 18:54Started uni at 12 today so decided to go for a quick fish in the dinghy before, hit the ramp at 6;30 and was chucking lures at mewstone and straggies half an hour later. Was hoping for some tailor and mabye salmon however we just couldn't get past the herring that were thick as everywhere we went. We then decided to see if we could find some KG's. We drove around for half an hour or so trying different spots until I found a school on the sounder and dropped down some fresh herring and seconds later ollie yells I’m on, he was quickly losing his 20lb braid until the fish spat the hooks, he then re drops and quickly brings up a small pinky, it was then my turn, I baited and dropped and seconds latter was on to a pretty serious fish, my tierra was screaming and I managed to lift the fish till it was half way up unfortunately it spat the dam hooks. At this stage we were devastated and I quickly dropped back down which resulted in me immediately hooking up again however this time to a much smaller fish, after a couple of minutes I had color and a nice pinky of 55cm in the net. We then struggled without a GPS to find the school and buzzed home to go to uni. It was the first legal pinky in the dinghy so although we missed some nice fish we still managed a feed.
- 4 comments
- 2169 reads
Kok's trip 16/4
Submitted by carnarvonite on Fri, 2010-04-16 18:09The weather was looking sweet for a run to the islands on Thursday so the day before I put the net in to score some fresh mullet for bait. It went in at 0800 and I pulled it in at one oclock for a grand total of 3 mullet, not a good start, having to swim and check it every twenty minutes or so, oh well one needed the exercise.
A quick run a round and I found a decky for the day and we were off at 0700, destination, a dozen or so little patches of coral about 5nm north of Koks island, I'd found on a trip 6 months back.After much looking and going round in circles all of the little patches couldn't be found, nothing even looked like coral so we headed south to the ever reliable Koks patch.
Stopping at a couple of marks we did a quick drift over one resulting in a just size pinky[released, must be better fish there] and an undersize spanish flag. Another drift and I got a good bite and a hook up straight away and off it goes straight in to the reef, a bit of jiggling and it comes free only for what ever it was to be sharked half way up. Bushy, my decky for the day brings up an undersize pinky. We motor over to the other mark and the first drift results in a reasonable pinky and another lost rig to a shark.
Not content to feed the sharks we head on to the Koks patch. After 2 drifts over the patch we have picked up another 2 legal pinkies and decide to anchor before the tide starts to crank up. Once the pick is in Bushy gets a legal pinky and I get a mulloway, long and skinny guesstimated to go 6-7kg. Next drop I pick up a golden trevally and a spanish flag for a double header while Bushy gets another under size pinky. We managed to get our trip total of keepers up to 5 pinkies, a spanish flag and because Bushy loves then a mulloway and the golden trevally otherwise they would be still swimming before the sharks found us again.
Sorry again,some how submitted the entry twice and deleted the one with the pics in it---Murphy's Law strikes again,will put them in
As "Murphy's Law" goes a couple of times while we both had our lines on the bottom twice we had schools of what looked like biiiggg tuna smashing baitfish right along side the boat and by the time it takes to grab another rod they disappear.
Apologies for the pics, not as good as I would have liked.
Murphy's Law strikes again,accidentally submitted the entry twice and deleted the one with the pics.Will submit them under the latest images section
- 12 comments
- 2168 reads


Recent comments
8 hours 1 sec ago
9 hours 55 min ago
11 hours 32 min ago
11 hours 36 min ago
12 hours 26 min ago
15 hours 13 min ago
15 hours 19 min ago
18 hours 17 min ago
1 day 5 hours ago
1 day 7 hours ago